Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala has described Oil Marketers as Oil Cartels holding the nation to ransom.
In what appears to be apparent frustration with the marketers, the federal government said the outstanding debts owed is about N131 billion based on Petroleum Pricing Products Regulatory Agency’s (PPRA) template not N200.2 billion as claimed by the marketers.
The Minister said “It has become a situation where we have a cartel that can ground the nation to a halt at will.
” I strongly suggest that the nation has to do something about it. It has been very stressful for four years, trying to cope with a group that controls a very important sector of a nation and they are small enough to organize themselves.”
“This means that they can hold a nation to ransom anytime they want. And that is what is happening.
“I remember when I came back as finance minister on August 17th 2011, the first thing that confronted me was this scandal of subsidies. By then more that N 1 trillion had already been paid. And we went through that whole thing and since then we cleaned up, restructured and trimmed down.
“You see that the amount we have been paying year by year diminished substantially to about N971 billion a year down from the N 2.3 trillion of 2011. We brought it from N 2.3 trillion to about N 971 trillion that has been in the budget each year. So, we made very substantial restructuring and changes to the whole process that brought the amount down for the nation. But yet we have to deal with this problem and the whole country has seen us trying our best struggling.”
The Minister added that the Oil Marketers have no risk, rather the government is taking full risk for their businesses.
She said “The template that governs their business is designed to cover all their costs plus a profit margin. That is PPPRA template which I have quarrelled with for quite some. So it is really no risk business for them. Or very little risk. I am not saying there is no stress. Of course, they have stress. But the risks are all covered by the template that was negotiated with PPPRA long ago. And it is actually that template that we have been quarrelling with.
”Based on that, the government is taking a full risk of their business according to this template. Even when we have revenue shortfall, any interest that accrues has to be paid by government. That is what was negotiated.
“So, they are in a no risk business and we have been pleading with them that if that is the case at least supply Nigerians with the fuel because at the end of the day the government is still paying for all of this. Why are you making Nigerians suffer? Why these long queues?”
The Minister and and petroleum product marketers are scheduled to hold a meeting today in Abuja.